Here we are, safely in Canada, at the public library two blocks up from the hotel enjoying free Internet access!

First point, to get it out of the way. Premiership football is shown live here, so I already know that Blues blew it again. Dad, it's far easier getting over this kind of rubbish when your room overlooks the city and the mountains behind - blue skies and sun all the way so far! Perhaps Birmingham should play all their games at 7am GMT so everyone gets a chance to blow them out of their system.

Today we're off to pick up our City Passports, and then take advantage of the good weather to stroll down to Stanley Park, read our books, and saunter back along English Bay. We'll probably nip across to Granville Island and try to book tickets for the theatre for my birthday on Tuesday, but otherwise we'll take it easy.

It's beautiful here, and - despite an hour's delay before takeoff (the plane made up 40 of those minutes in flight) - everything has gone smoothly so far (the Vancouver Airporter was a dream to use - the driver told us all we needed to know, let us off at our transfer point telling us the next bus would be along in a minute... And it was! Unbelievable service, and so stress-free).

Other than to scare my mother by stating I feel so at home here (so far, touch wood, etc), all I can say is that the three in-flight movies - Troy, The Motorcycle Diaries and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - are all entertaining and watchable, for completely different reasons. I think dad would like The Motorcycle Diaries - a young Che Gueverra and his mate motorcycle up the west coast of South America where he develops his revolutionary ideals. Troy was nowhere near as bad as I thought, and Anchorman just appealed to my sense of humour.

Right, the holiday starts here! Bloody Blues...